Thursday 21 October 2010

Tips For Making Piano Songs

By Jerry Jones

Have you ever had the urge to produce your own special piano songs? Just simple pieces that express how you feel? You can if you learn how to improvise first and then learn how to compose. Here's why.

Improvising gives you the ability to express what you feel without any kind of constraint. In essence, it's like freewriting because the goal here is to free your own unique voice without having to worry about right or wrong, good or bad. It is a skill that students should learn before any other and is foundational for further success at composing. You are ready to compose as soon as you're able to sit down at the piano and trust your intuition to help you.

Composition is really just slowed down improvisation. We take the initial inspirational gem we've discovered through improv and flush it out using the tools of repetition and contrast. For example, in the lesson "Waiting for Spring," we learn how to create a simple ABA form in the Key of C.

The vital thing here is that we already realize the piece will be an ABA form so how do we move forward? Easily! The way I do it is I write out the first 8-bars and then improvise to see what will come up. Once I'm onto something, I write out the first 2-bars of the melody so I can remember it. Then I use chords from the Key of C Major to finish the first 8-bars; my (A) section. Another 8-bars or so for my (B) section and I'm done! The arrangement of this easy piano song usually works itself out to be play the (A) section twice, (B) section once, back to the (A) section and I'm done. Plenty of time, this comes out to at least two to three minutes of music.

The vital thing for producing your own piano songs is that you need to be able to go on and finish sections of music. This is best accomplished when you can improvise freely first! - 42265

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